Climate Change and International Development Cooperation

Abstract

This paper discusses what climate change really means for international development cooperation between developed countries and developing countries. This research question can be divided into the following three sub-questions: (1) How does climate change impact developing countries? (2) What is the cost benefit of climate policy for developing countries? (3) What does climate change request in order to reform development policy and international development cooperation?

To analyze these sub questions, we focus on the consensus sent out by the Stern Review, the International Panel on Climate Change—4^th Assessment Report, and United Nations Development Program-Human Development Report, among others.

The state of international development cooperation and measures focusing on mitigation and adaptation, and the cost of the impact of climate change on developing countries, are serious issues. Since the Industrial Revolution, temperature increases higher than 2°C pose a risk which has a remarkable negative influence to both advanced and developing countries. However, developing countries are especially vulnerable to climate change risk by various factors: natural geographic factor, as many of these countries are located in tropical areas; industrial factor, with an emphasis on farming as the center; economic-social factor, which includes low income and a large income disparity.

The future generation of developing countries and the social cost at stake due to climate change were indicated in the Stern Review, which emphasized a firm climate policy and early action, as well as cost benefit analysis. Mitigation and adaptation are important measures for developing countries to handle climate change; however, most importantly, these countries first need to adopt a national policy themselves. But it's impossible for developing counties with low social capacity to make and to implement an effective climate policy without support by effective international development cooperation.

Support for developing countries has been sung by UNFCCC regarding mitigation and adaptation by developed countries through negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, but the situation is very insufficient. It is time to seriously consider forming a new international system to support mitigation and adaptation in a developing country.